BTW also forget any of those magazines listing "comparative values" of security applications or similar -- these results are ALWAYS at least 6 weeks out of date by the time you get to read them

They can vary somewhat - depending how they are conducted and the precise timing. Nevertheless, I trust PCPro - Defender gave the poorest showing by far. Better than nothing at all, they said - but all the well known 3rd party free programs are much better still.

Not surprising - it ties in with what MS said all along. It is basic protection out of the box.

The last comparison I saw (not recent) had the MSE rated up on a par with other highly rated Antivirus programs such as Kaspersky.

Most of the "techies" that I know use and recommend MSE (and now Defender). I do PC support and have recommended it to all my clients and most are using the Microsoft product and no one has had any virus problems. I also use and recommend Malwarebytes for malware/spyware.

I have been in computers since "before PC's" and used McAfee for many years in the DOS and early Windows days. I'm retired but I was the Midwest LAN/WAN Network and Hardware Help Desk Manager for a Federal Government Agency for 23 years. I was also Novell 3.12 CNE.

BTW also forget any of those magazines listing "comparative values" of security applications or similar -- these results are ALWAYS at least 6 weeks out of date by the time you get to read them

They can vary somewhat - depending how they are conducted and the precise timing. Nevertheless, I trust PCPro - Defender gave the poorest showing by far. Better than nothing at all, they said - but all the well known 3rd party free programs are much better still.

Not surprising - it ties in with what MS said all along. It is basic protection out of the box.

It's easy to state that Windows defender is "Fit for purpose" -- if you READ AND UNDERSTOOD my post I said that the Windows security is now implemented IN THE WINDOWS KERNEL ITSELF (a protected part of the OS) - W8 not W7 so any ramblings about security based on W7 are OBSOLETE in this discussion.
Unlike previous iterations of Windows security was "Bolted on" as an afterthought.

Now Since third party developers don't have access to Windows source code --certainly not the kernel -- they have to rely on published API's or "Get arounds" to "simulate" or "reverse" engineer what Windows defender actually does already -- and since MS provides constant windows updates it's easy to see that Ms windows security will always be more up to date than the third party suppliers.

Q.E.D ------ argument proved conclusively --end of.

As for the resource consumption -- Windows defender is ALREADY integrated into the system -- you can't uninstall it like a norma application program so in essence any other program you add for security is just consuming EXTRA resources.

You really must READ AND FULLY UNDERSTAND the post you are replying to before making refutations that are obviously incorrect.

Windows 8 operates DIFFERENTLY to Windows 7 from all sorts of points therefore you can't base you reasoning on what previous versions of Windows did. (This is NOTHING to do whether you like or dislike the new GUI etc etc --but purely on how the system itself is built and how the internal components now react with themselves and outside applications and code whether malicious9Viruses etc) or benign - normal applications.

Finally comparisons aren't really of any use for these reasons

1) by the time the list is published its out of date already
2) End users use their systems probably in totally different ways to the testers so the whole testing mechanism is suspect anyway.

Finally Chapter and verse please for "Ms says Windows defender is basic security" for W8. From what I read Ms was making stringent efforts to make the Windows OS (W8) as SECURE as it possibly can be. Ms is really putting efforts into this area so I really doubt where you get your information from.

@ fireberd -- I'm referring to W8 here so MSE doesn't come into it --although excellent for W7 the whole mechanism is different in W8.

I switched to Avast free . Microsoft security software defender is a little heavy, more memory consuming and makes my pc less responsive. I experienced it especially on folder and file operations . So I turned defender and smartscreen off and installed avast free. I am happy with the result. Avast has more features and less dependent and now is windows 8 compatible avast! Free Antivirus | Download Antivirus Protection Software

I usually like microsoft operating systems but not microsoft security softwares. Often I replace microsoft software with free and trustable third party softwares. For example , I don't use microsoft image viewers . Instead I install and use irfanview software.

Not because it is old . It may be old compared to new cpus but you don't get what I mean by saying less responsive. I don't mean it is very slow. My pc is still fast enough to do any tasks. I don't see any need to upgrade it. I see a difference between defender and avast in my pc. Do I have to prove it ? No. I just say what I experienced.

So I downloaded Avast today and I keep getting this error message
"Fatal error: current avast! installer is not trusted by avast! Self Defense module. Try to launch the installer again."
I called avast and they said sounds like an infection but I had just done a fresh install, nothing pirated...

I wanted to watch I Claudius on YouTube.
I got a message "This movie is not available in your country." .
I have the paid version of Avast.
An Avast message popped up saying I could watch the movie if I bought their anonymisation program.
{rent actually}
It had a 3 day free trial.
I...

I was informed that Windows Defender does not offer very much protection so I downloaded Avast. I cannot however get it to open. My thinking it that Windows Defender may be preventing it from running. How can I resolve this issue?

Hello,
I cannot connect to internet after uninstalling my Avast 8 (Exact version 8.0.1487). I even tried uninstalling it from their uninstallation tool in Windows 8 Safe Mode, still had the same problem. On troubleshooting, this is what I was shown
"Ethernet" doesn't have a valid IP...

Updated to 5.2 .
Supports AFD drives, I understand.
It works very well for me, even recovering ext4 partitions. It can make a winpe disc for you - but like most of these things, you need to d/l waik for that.
Surprisingly, it also is free for commercial use
Free partition manager...